@vistajay can’t wait to hear about the FU orientation!!! Hope you guys have a great time. I have been looking up FU tours on YouTube.
@PlateauMama I don’t recall where you are located or where your DD is going to school but I can say, moving to Central Texas from Reno NV I expected to dump all the winter gear and live in shorts and flip flops. While yes, there have been days of AC when decorating the Christmas tree, we do have bouts of cold - freezing rain type weather. With the humidity, the cold can be really COLD, I was surprised.
Now, generally nothing a good hoodie, mittens and a scarf can’t handle but it can get cold. Not every winter but probably 4 of the 6 winters we have been here have seen days/weeks of walking the dog with an ear warmer, scarf and heavy hoodie.
So D18 got her roommate assignment 60% compatibility 
Her biggest thing was room temperature. She was born and raised in Florida and heading to Miami. She likes the room cold for comfort and to control the humidity. The roommate said in the survey 78 degrees. I told her not to worry, the girl has to be from the north and doesn’t realize 78 degree room in South Florida is unbearable. Sure enough she’s from Delaware. D18 will move in earlier due to marching band and I guarantee the roomie will love a nice cool room after move-in day in South Florida in mid August. How do we Floridians survive the heat? Moving from A/C to A/C :))
D18 has lived her entire childhood in the desert and is really excited to experience the weather in Ithaca. We found a North Face store this past weekend and got her the warm goose down jacket - lucky for us there was a 40% sale going on for Father’s Day!!
I grew-up in NY, so at least I know enough to get her the warm coat, hat, mittens, and some cold weather footwear. My guess is that she actually will enjoy living with the different seasons for a few years. If you don’t have to shovel the car out of the snow bank, or commute in a blizzard, or work out in the cold, etc., etc., then I’m sure it can actually be fun!!
She has her room assignment, is in contact with her roommates (they got a triple), has her meal plan picked-out, and money is deposited for her laundry room account. There’s not much left for us to do other than to ship some of her stuff out there & then get on the plane!
Small world tidbit: 3 kids from D’s high school were accepted to Cornell & they all wound-up in the same dorm!!
@LMHS73 Same dorm! Did they request or was that the draw - Personally, I would be unhappy about that - I want my kid to expand beyond high school.
We lived in snow country for many years - there is a lot of truth to your statement that if you only have to play in it or look out the window to the beauty snow creates, then yes, it is a lot of fun!
My favorite thing about when it snows is the quite that is created…
@SnowflakeDogMom - it was a request, but we take a bit of a different view and are really happy about the situation. They really didn’t hang-out together in HS - just friends from their different class together & they roomed together in a summer camp a couple of years ago. They know they get along & can coexist as roommates, so that takes away the worry of getting that “roommate from hell” situation that we read about from time-to-time.
As for the cold & snow - As a kid, I remember the fun of building snow forts and listening to the radio, hoping to hear that my school was closed that day because of the snowstorm. I’m sure that my parents were listening to the radio and hoping to hear just the opposite! As an adult, I remember the other side of it: taking that freezing shower in the morning because the oil burner took forever to heat the water; running the car for 20 minutes before I could scrape the ice off of the windshield; digging the car out of the snow many times; putting those chains on the tires; and then finally getting on the highway with all of the other drivers slipping and sliding their way to work.
But, if I push aside those memories of the morning commute, I also remember the peaceful feeling of watching the snow fall & yes - like you said - the quiet it created; and then waking-up the next morning to that blanket of fresh snow on the ground making everything feel new and fresh again…
We had a miracle happen today! D18 got an email from Residential saying they had a single come available and she was at the top of the waitlist. She snatched that up right away…emailed back and called to follow-up. I don’t think she has ever followed-up.
@flsoccermom22 - WOW! That is a miracle. Very nice.
This really got to me: https://grownandflown.com/adolescence-18/
Well, DD ended her time at high school last Friday. Said it feels a little weird but glad she won’t be going back, as am I. I will say though, we had a late graduation ceremony, so by the time we left it was dark and the school was all lit up. It looked very pretty and I felt a slight twinge of a “final goodbye”. 
Oh well, on to better things!
That made me cry.
@icbihtsu I cant even. That title is too much for me already :((
My S is getting ready for a new climate too. He needs shorts for UCSB! =))
@SnowflakeDogMom we are from the Pacific NW and my daughter is heading to Dallas. My BFF lives in Dallas so I am very familiar with the bipolar weather of Texas. She has worn uniforms for the past 4 years so she has NO clothes of any sort. We are starting with summer clothes + hoodies and then Thanksgiving we can get winter clothes.
@PlateauMama when we moved to Texas from Nevada, our DD had been in a Charter School with uniforms - I feel your pain. We found that Plato’s Closet was a good way to add a lot of pieces to the stock items purchased new, it really helped us grow her wardrobe without being broke 
Re: shorts and UCSB - He will need layering pieces, too. UCSB can be cold and foggy at 9 am, sunny, warm and gorgeous at noon, and then cold and foggy again by 3 pm.
If you dress for cold and foggy when you wake up, you’re hot and sweating later. If you dress for sunny and gorgeous in the middle, you’re cold and shivering in the morning and afternoon.
Well we have had a busy last week and a half or so. Lots of good but also lots of heartache for DD.
On Sunday before last, found our 12 year old Golden spread eagle on her stomach with labored breathing. Got her to vet hospital and within 3 hours from finding her we had to put her to sleep.
Meantime my 89 year old father in law was suffering from serious dementia fell and fractured his hip the same day. On Tuesday he was admitted to hospice.
Thursday was DD 18th birthday. Friday was her HS Graduation. As a present for both we gave her a trip to Chicago with her mom to see Hamilton (which she loves) She decorated her cap with a tiger paw from her HS and tiger paw from Clemson and letters that said “Once a Tiger Always a Tiger” She was excited when the picture of her cap appeared on HS’s twitter page…
Sunday I took her to orientation (my wife was supposed to take her but because of her father’s pending passing I took her) that occurred Monday and Tuesday. Fortunately it went really well. Picked her classes, got all the classes she wanted except one, she made some friends and came away convinced that Clemson Honors was absolutely the right choice for her. That is big relief.
Sadly this morning at 5:00AM her grandfather passed away. Fortunately she did get to say goodbye to him on Sunday before she left for Clemson.
Sorry to be such a downer…but this is the cycle of life.
@burghdad, thinking of you and your family.
@burghdad I’m sorry for your losses.
I hope the trip to see Hamilton is a nice break for your D and W.
@burghdad - Thank you for sharing. Wow. My thoughts are with you and yours during these momentous times.
@Meddy (and @memmom2018?) and @Mommy2018 -
I just stumbled on that site yesterday (grownandflown.com). It’s powerful and sweet and, for me, cathartic and helpful. There is even an Empty Nest set of posts! Yeah, it can be a bit of a tear-jerker. But if I weren’t crying over this, I’d probably be crying over something else! Anyway, I’m glad I found it.
It “gets us” and what this time holds for us. Like @burghdad’s post/comment/share above (#16178), we can find ourselves and our situations reflected back by so many relatable stories regarding this tumultuous period in our parenting journey. It’s good to seek such stories, don’t you think? To help US parents grow and evolve and transition, too.